WEEKLY WATER NEWS

DataStreme WES Week Eleven: 10-14 April 2006

Water in the News:

(Thurs.) High court refuses to hear Missouri River case -- The US Supreme Court has announced that it has refused to hear an appeal made by North Dakota of the ruling in a lower court against the case filed by the state against the US Army Corps of Engineers for alleged violation of state water pollution laws in managing the flow of the Missouri River. [US Water News Online]
(Thurs.) Chinese waterways at risk from chemicals -- The deputy director of China's State Environmental Protection Agency told the official news agency last week that the nation's major waterways are threatened by severe pollution because of poor planning and a lack of adequate water treatment facilities. More than 120 major chemical projects located too close to large water bodies contribute to the pollution by releasing tons of toxic chemicals. [ENN]
(Thurs.) Contamination linked to sturgeon decline -- Researchers at Oregon State University suggest that the decline in the white sturgeon population in the Columbia River located between Washington and Oregon above the Bonneville Dam may be due to the presence of large amounts of toxic contaminants in their bodies. [EurekAlert!]
(Thurs.) Martian sands could be soggy -- Using the geologic features of White Sands National Monument in New Mexico as an analogy, scientists at the University of California-Davis suggest that the patterns appearing on images from the Mars rover "Opportunity" would suggest that water may have been present on the Martian surface within recent times. [University of California-Davis]
(Tues.) Tropical fossils found in northern Canada -- NASA recently posted an image taken by the Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus sensor on the Landsat 7 satellite of the site on Ellesmere Island in Canada's Nunavut Territory where a new fossil fish species with legs that had existed approximately 375 million years ago. [NASA Earth Observatory]
(Tues.) Europeans not immune to serious water crisis -- While much of the attention was focused upon the extreme drought conditions in Africa that have produced a water crisis for hundreds of millions, as many as 41 million Europeans lack sufficient potable water according to a report presented to the 4th World Water Forum. The lack of water is caused in part by drought in southern Europe, floods in northern sections of the continent and an aging infrastructure in eastern Europe. [US Water News Online]
(Tues.) Pop may contain too much benzene -- Although the US Food and Drug Administration has found diet soft drinks contain higher levels of the carcinogenic chemical benzene than the allowable limits set for tap water, they have not issued any safety concerns. [ENN]
(Tues.) Prairie provinces could face water crisis -- An environmental scientist at the University of Alberta reports that Canada's western Prairie Provinces could be facing an unprecedented water crisis due to a combination of factors, including higher global temperatures, increased human activity and drought. [EurekAlert!]
(Tues.) Increased ocean acidity noted -- NOAA scientists from the Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory along with colleagues from other governmental agencies and universities reported that they found that the ocean samples collected from the Pacific Ocean during their recent research cruise from Tahiti north to Alaska indicates that the waters of the Pacific in both hemispheres has become more acidic, as more inorganic carbon is dissolved in the ocean water. The scientists are studying the effects of the ocean acidification upon the water chemistry and marine organisms. [NOAA News]
(Tues.) Iceberg knocks tip off a large ice sheet -- A series of images obtained from the Advanced Synthetic Aperture Radar onboard the European Space Agency's Envisat satellite provide before and after images of C-16, an iceberg approximately as large as New York's Long Island, colliding with Drygalski Ice Tongue, a large floating ice tongue that is a part of Antarctica's Ross Ice Shelf. A new iceberg was created from this collision. [ESA] Meteorologists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have been tracking this iceberg from satellites and from meteorological and positional data collected from automatic weather stations that they have installed on the iceberg and the Ice Tongue. [University of Wisconsin-Madison News Service] Satellite images of the iceberg obtained from polar orbiting NOAA satellites are updated daily. [Space Science and Engineering Center, UW-Madison]
(Tues.) Puget Sound called a "toxic stew" -- Researchers attending a public forum at Seattle, Washington's Town Hall last week reported that a variety of toxins have entered the waters of Puget Sound, contaminating this estuary and adversely affecting the fish that are found in these waters. [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]
(Tues.) London could see a major storm surge -- The Flood Risk Management Consortium, a group of scientists and other professionals from academia, business and government in the United Kingdom, is running a simulation that will test the effects of a 23-foot high storm surge that would travel upstream along the River Thames to downtown London. The Environment Agency was using this model to study the effectiveness of London's flood defenses. This wave was generated by a "virtual storm" by the UK Met Office. [BBC News]
Capturing the magnitude of flooding from a satellite -- Satellite images obtained from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer onboard the NASA Aqua satellite of the Upper Midwest in mid-March and early-April 2006 show how widespread the flooding was across eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota as recent heavy rain, along with rapid snowmelt, has caused the Red River of the North and its tributaries to flood. [NASA Earth Observatory] As of this past weekend, floodwaters have begun to recede at Fargo and Grand Forks in North Dakota, allowing officials to begin assessing the damage and start cleanup operations. [USA Today]
Floodwaters recede in California -- Rivers in central California's San Joaquin Valley that had been flooded early last week because of torrential rain and snowmelt began to recede at the end of last week, permitting some residents to begin returning to their homes. [USA Today]
Idaho braces for flooding -- Heavy rain and snow accompanying recent storm systems have caused rivers to rise to above flood stage across southern Idaho at the end of last week, a situation that has not occurred within the last five years due to a protracted severe drought. More precipitation was expected over the weekend and for early this week. [USA Today]
Floods strand hundreds in Australia -- Heavy rain in Australia's Northern Territory last week produced flooding that stranded hundreds of residents in the town of Katherine south of Darwin. [USA Today]
Five names retired following 2005 hurricane season -- The international committee of the World Meteorological Organization that maintains the lists of tropical cyclone names for all the world's ocean basins recently announced that the names of Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Stan and Wilma have been officially retired from the list of names for tropical storms and hurricanes in the North Atlantic Basin because all five hurricanes were exceptionally destructive during the historic 2005 Atlantic hurricane season. These names will be replaced with Don, Katia, Rina, Sean and Whitney on the list, which will identify those tropical cyclones during the 2011 hurricane season. [NOAA News]
Recycling mine water sought -- The state of Pennsylvania is awarding grants to business and academia as a means of encouraging the development of ways in which polluted water found in abandoned coal mines could be recycled and used, such as through the extraction of a variety of metals from the compounds dissolved in the two trillion gallons of waste water. [ENN]
Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods, and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
Global Water News Watch -- Other water news sources can be obtained through the SAHRA Project at the University of Arizona [SAHRA Project]
Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

An Earth Day educational opportunity -- George Wilken, a DataStreme Atmosphere LIT member in Arkansas, forwarded the following information: "On April 21, 2006, Earth Day Network will host a live online chat during which high school and college students can pose questions to a panel of climate change experts. Interested observers can watch the chat live online or download a video and transcript at a later date. The panelists for the chat include David Battisti of the University of Washington, John Harte of the University of California at Berkeley, John Reilly of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Dan Schrag of Harvard University. The chat will be moderated by Vicki Arroyo of the Pew Center on Global Climate Change.

"If you are affiliated with a high school or college and you are interested in having your class interact with the panelists, please send an email with the subject heading "Climate Change Live Chat" to education@earthday.net. Include in the text your school's name and location and the grades and subjects you teach. For more information, please visit http://www.earthday.net/news/LiveChat.aspx "

Concept of the Week: Desertification

Desertification is one of the world's most pressing environmental issues, threatening the existence of more than a billion people who depend on the land for survival. In 1992, the United Nation's Conference on Environment and Development defined desertification as "land degradation in arid, semi-arid, and dry sub-humid areas resulting from various factors, including climate variations and human activities." Through desertification, arable land is transformed into desert-like land, greatly reducing or eliminating the land's capacity to produce food. Desertification's impact on people dependent on subsistence farming and herding is food insecurity. Often, their only option to avoid famine is to migrate to urban areas.

According to U.N. estimates, desertification affects about 130 million hectares (320 million acres) of land worldwide, equivalent to the combined areas of France, Italy, and Spain. Portions of some 110 nations are impacted, including parts of the North American Great Plains, the Pampas of South America, the steppes of Asia, the Australia's "outback," and the edges of the Mediterranean. But by far the most widespread and severe impact is in Africa, where two-thirds of the continent's land area is desert or dry land. Almost three-quarters of Africa's dry-land agricultural area is degraded to some extent. Desertification is a very serious problem in Sub-Saharan Africa with its considerable year-to-year variability in seasonal rainfall and frequent long-term droughts (described on pages 83-84 of the DataStreme WES Textbook).

The systems approach is valuable in understanding desertification in that the process involves interactions of climate, Earth's land surface, the water cycle, and human activity. Desertification of dry lands accelerates during prolonged drought. Climate change can alter the frequency, duration, and intensity of drought and thereby contribute to soil desiccation. Although climate change may play an important role in desertification, a key factor is human mismanagement of the soil resource. Poverty and subsistence agriculture drive people to over-cultivate the land, quickly exhausting the soil's fertility. Overgrazing by livestock and deforestation exacerbate an already bad situation by removing the protective vegetative cover and exposing the topsoil to erosion by wind and running water. Winds can transport fine topsoil thousands of kilometers and sandstorms strip the leaves from plants and bury crops under dunes.

Land mismanagement also impacts the local climate and water budget, speeding up desertification. Without a vegetative cover, soil surface temperatures rise, accelerating evaporation of water, depletion of soil moisture, and build up of salts in the soil. Less soil moisture means that more of the available heat is used for raising the air temperature through conduction and convection (i.e., sensible heating). In this way heat stress combines with moisture stress to cut into crop yields.

Concept of the Week: Questions

Through desertification, crop productivity [(declines) (increases)].
Human mismanagement of the soil resource [(is) (is not)] a key factor in desertification.

Historical Events:

10 April 1877...The first of two great coastal storms struck the Virginia and North Carolina coasts. The Oregon Inlet was widened by three-quarters of a mile. The "entire topography of country is materially altered," according to a description of the altering of sand dunes at Cape Hatteras, NC. (Intellicast)
10 April 1996...A strong coastal storm gave New England is second heavy snowfall in only 3 days. North Foster, RI was buried under 21.5 inches of snow, while Jaffery, NH measured 21 inches. Other heavy totals included 27.4 inches on Mount Washington, NH, 20.1 inches at Ashburnham, MA, 17 inches at Windham, CT, and 12.6 inches at Brookhaven, NY. Tree damage was extensive due the heavy, wet nature of the snow. This storm took care of the remaining seasonal snowfall records as records were exceeded at the Blue Hill Observatory in Milton, MA, Worcester, MA, Concord, NH, and Bridgeport, CT. Many locations in the northeast now exceeded 120 inches for the winter season, with a few locations over 150 inches, making the winter of 1995-96 without question the snowiest winter on record for a large part of the Northeast. (Intellicast)
10 April 1998...Northeast winds at 40 mph on the 9^th and 10^th combined with high levels of Lake Erie produced waves to 14 feet along the lakeshore in Ottawa and Sandusky Counties in Ohio. Much damage resulted, along with the destruction of 10 houses. Bulldozers were needed to clear the debris from roads. Downtown Port Clinton streets were flooded. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
11-14 April 1984...Ice from an ice storm accumulated up to 6 inches thick on power lines in St John's, Newfoundland. Power outages left 200,000 residents of Avalon Peninsula in the dark and cold. (The Weather Doctor)
11 April 1987...Ten days of flooding in the northeastern U.S. finally came to an end. Damage from flooding due to rain and snowmelt ran into the billions of dollars. The collapse of the New York State Thruway Bridge over Schoharie Creek claimed ten lives. (Storm Data)
12 April 1994...While hiking in a nearly dry creek near Laie, HI, a group of Boy Scouts was surprised by a rapid 2 to 4 foot rise in water. One boy was swept away by the flash flood. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
14-15 April 1912...The British steamer RMS Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg in the North Atlantic off Newfoundland on its maiden voyage from South Hampton to New York. The collision occurred at about 11:45 PM on 14 April and the ship sank in 2.5 hours during the early morning hours of the 15^th. Reports showed 1517 people out of 2207 onboard lost their lives in this accident. As a result of this disaster, an International Ice Patrol was established to monitor the iceberg hazards in the North Atlantic. The U.S. Coast Guard continues to conduct much of the effort. (US Coast Guard Historian's Office)
14 April 1986...The world's heaviest hailstone, weighing 2.25 pounds, fell in the Gopalganj District of Bangladesh and killed 92. This hailstone could have reached speeds in excess of 90 mph. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar) (Wikipedia)
15 April 1921...Two-mile high Silver Lake (elevation 10,220 ft) in Boulder County, Colorado received 76 in. of snow in 24 hrs, the heaviest 24-hr total of record for North America. The storm left a total of 87 in. in twenty-seven and a half hours. (David Ludlum)
16 April 1851...The famous "Lighthouse Storm" (a "nor'easter") raged near Boston Harbor. Whole gales and gigantic waves destroyed the 116-ft Minot Ledge Light at Cohasset, MA with the loss of its two keepers still inside. The lighthouse was the first one built in the United States that was exposed to the full force of the ocean. The storm coupled with a spring tide resulted in massive flooding, great shipping losses and coastal erosion. Streets in Boston were flooded to the Custom House. (David Ludlum) (US Coast Guard Historians Office) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 April 1854...A furious storm that produced two feet of snow at New Brunswick, NJ also caused approximately 18 shipwrecks along the New Jersey coast. The immigrant ship Powhattan beached 100 yards from the shore. With rescue impossible, 340 people onboard lost their lives. "The shrieks of the drowning creatures were melancholy indeed." (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
16 April 1987...A slow moving storm system produced heavy rain over North Carolina and the Middle Atlantic Coastal States. More than six inches of rain drenched parts of Virginia, and flooding in Virginia claimed three lives. Floodwaters along the James River inundated parts of Richmond, VA. (The National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

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Prepared by AMS DataStreme WES Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.